1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a waterproof and/or water-resistant camera, and more precisely, to a waterproof and/or water-resistant camera having a watertight connection between the camera body and the openable back cover.
2. Description of Related Art
A water-resistant camera which does not allow drops of rain or water to enter the camera, e.g. in the rain or near the shore, and a waterproof camera which can take pictures even in shallow water, e.g. in a swimming pool or in seawater near the shoreline, are both available on the market.
In a conventional water-resistant and/or waterproof camera, the watertight connection between the camera body and the openable back cover is established such that a sealing member provided on the outer portion of the inside of the back cover is brought into pressing contact with a contacting surface of the camera body. The sealing member is made of an elastic or resilient material such as rubber and presses against both the camera body and the openable back cover by its biasing force when the back cover is closed.
The biasing force of the sealing member applied to the camera body and the back cover when the back cover is closed is quite large even though the biasing force of sealing member per unit is not so large. Due to this large biasing force, the back cover may become slightly deformed since the back cover usually does not have a large thickness and strength as compared with the associated camera body. Thereby, the portion of the back cover to which a sealing member is attached becomes uneven, resulting in a deterioration of the watertight connection between the camera body and the back cover.
Some conventional water-resistant and/or waterproof cameras have adopted the arrangement in which the contacting surface of the camera body with which the sealing member of the back cover is brought into pressing contact is formed such that the contacting surface is inclined to the pressing direction of the sealing member against the contacting surface in order to reduce the biasing force of the sealing member applied to the contacting surface, so that the back cover is not deformed by the biasing force. However, in the conventional water-resistant and/or waterproof camera of this type, in the case where the back cover is opened with the camera getting wet, it is often the case that drops of water on the inclined contacting surface travel along the surface and fall into the camera body.